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User blog:LeMansRacer/Article Editing - Reviewing a Car
There are a lot of car articles on our wiki and many of them feature very little content regarding their overall performance. I've decided to write this short guide on the "bread and butter" of a good car review. I'll also be highlighting what makes a bad comparison, what really doesn't need to be said and what should be avoided. Research What makes a good car review? For the most part it needs to be as balanced as possible - remember that what some may call a "bad" car is down to their driving style. Example. Lets take an example from Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012), more precisely the Ford Focus RS500. It's a hatchback, a really hot hatchback but more importantly; it's an unusual choice of vehicle for many players. We'll start off by listing as many good and bad attributes as possible; This is what I wrote down onto a sticky note whilst I had a good play around with the RS500. All of this points to the RS500 being a mediocre car; a car best suited for new players as it can easily wet any player's toes for all gameplay aspects. Example The Ford Focus RS500 featured in Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) appears as an Everyday class vehicle. It is of a hatchback design and has fairly average performance statistics with control and off-road being its highest rated attributes. It is made available to all players at SpeedLevel 1 in multiplayer but in single player it must first be discovered at one of its various Jack Spots. The RS500 has moderately slow acceleration due to it being fairly heavy for such a small car and continuous driving mistakes will allow for vehicles to quickly catch up. This is worsened by its slow to respond first gear and obligatory loss of momentum when traversing uphill. At moderate speeds it can easily change direction making it useful for evasion in takedown battles as well as being capable of performing J-turns. The RS500 excels most off-road as its rigid body, grip and wheel base give a perky edge over other vehicles. It can slide between high-powered vehicles and change quickly change direction to avoid larger off-road vehicles. It's capable of making many jumps but requires a great deal of leeway for stunt orientated events. At high speeds it can be easily controlled and slip through traffic well but all with a small amount of understeer. The high mass of the RS500, teamed with its responsive steering and rigid chassis, means it can take on other vehicles of a similar body type as well as more fragile vehicles. It will struggle against larger vehicles and more resilient body types. What Did I Do? I broke down the section into a few different highlights for the vehicle; unlock, acceleration, top speed, control, weight, off road, toughness, pursuit and stunts. They're not necessarily featured in that order but those are the main points that I wanted to hit. The review needed to highlight the RS500 and only the RS500. Some cars may be better and it may be better than some others but we want to give the reader that choice. The reader should be the one with the opinion of which car is better than other but the article for the car should only highlight the good and the bad. What Didn't I Do? Three things I didn't want to do was; compare it to another vehicle, give it an imbalanced judgement or highlight modifications. Comparing it aspect by aspect to another vehicle is a really bad method of reviewing a car. All we would know is how different it is to that car and leave the reader with a choice built on how much worse a RS500 is than a Lamborghini; that really would be silly as both of those cars offer different advantages and disadvantages, which is the point of the games design. Only saying the bad aspects of the RS500 would leave readers with the opinion that it is a bad car and was included in the game to be a bad car. There is no car in any Need for Speed game that is there to be specifically bad at everything; everyone has a different driving style and everyone can do better in a car that suits their driving style rather than what is rated as the best. Modifications do not belong in a car review as they're meant for specific circumstances. Mods are meant to be swapped out during gameplay due to the every changing race, SpeedTest or challenge. If they weren't then nobody would be able to. Closing There you have it, an example review of the Ford Focus RS500 for Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012). You've read through all of this. Have a reward song. Addendum - I wrote this out last week but didn't get around to finishing it off until this week. If anyone has some suggestions for another Article Editing blog post, I'll be sure to work on that for next week. Category:Blog posts